Contents

Plot

After a hard day's work, the engines return to the shed and ask Thomas to continue the story of Duke. Thomas then reminds them of the story thus far.

While Duke was in his shed for many years, he was certainly not forgotten and recently a team of people visited the Fat Controller intending to find and rescue Duke. The team was prepared with maps and knew where to look, so the Fat Controller agreed. Everyone set off to the mountains in a train and began the long search. As the days passed, the search grew harder and there was no sign of Duke, but the rescuers were just as determined to find him.

Finally, the search ended, quite by accident, when one of the team members fell through the roof of Duke's shed, having not realised he was standing on it and age had weakened the roof to where it could collapse. Duke woke up and asked the men if they were vandals, but they assured him that they are there to rescue him and reunite him with Stuart and Falcon. After digging him out of the shed, they took Duke to his new home, the Skarloey Railway. Falcon and Stuart, now renamed Sir Handel and Peter Sam, were ready to greet their old friend, but they saw that he was asleep in the shed. They hushed each other, but it was too late as they had already disturbed him, so he complained that they woke him up and started to tell them about the older days.

The two engines laughed at this and told Duke that they were all due to go back to work tomorrow and they could keep Duke in order. Duke pretended to be cross, but he could not be happier to be reunited with his friends.

And that is the end of Thomas' story. All the engines agree on what a great tale it was and how glad they are that it really did have a happy ending before falling asleep.